The invention provides an R switch for switching connections between microwave waveguides on and off which has a structure which widens bandwidth by lowering the resonance frequencies of interconnections not in use thereby reducing coupling.
The European patent 0 276 582 discloses such an R switch with a stator, a rotor and three interconnections constructed as step transformers. In designing the R switches known from the art, it was totally disregarded that the non-active interconnections of these switches formed short-circuited cavities, which act as cavity resonators at certain frequencies. At these frequencies, the active paths, are affected so strongly that there is practically no longer any insulation between microwave waveguide, which is not connected, nor, with that, is there an error-free signal transmission. A resonance frequency of the non-active, curved paths is greater here than that of the nonactive straight interconnections, so that these two resonance frequencies limit a bandwidth of HF signals, which can be transmitted error-free by the R switches and, with that, limit the HF signals, which can be switched through.